Engels 1935 Sweeney Ranch, Hennessey Canyon, 22 mi. wsw Los Banos, Merced Co., California. Too easy -- they jumped out from under foot, ran only a short distance & then stopped, sitting still, usually still in full view. Also saw one Black-tailed Jack Rabbit. Although the ground-squirrel burrows are everywhere, & the hills covered with the crisscross patterns of their surface runs, I saw ground- squirrels only in a small flat at the bottom of the canyon just west of the ranch house. They were very alert -- as I would come to the top of the hill, 200 or more feet above them and more than 300 feet away, I could see them scurry from all sides of the flat to their burrows toward the center. It was impossible to approach them within shot-gun range. Mrs. Sweeney, who came out to the ranch tonight, said she placed poison-grain all over this flat, about the fresh-burrow entrances, about two months ago, & was sure she had killed off all the squirrels there at that time. If she did, at least two dozens have come in from the surrounding territory in the past two-months -- I saw at least that many. Saw another California Thrasher this morning, and a Long-eared Owl in the cottonwood at the ranch house.